Various methods have been employed by artists, particularly beginning or intermediate artists, to simply and efficiently paint leafy vegetation such as trees, bushes, and the like. Even more advanced artists often have a need to provide specific pattern effects in a painting. Items such as these are extremely difficult and time consuming to achieve with a typical artist's brush. Because of this, certain painting aids have been developed. One of the most common is the sponge. When a sponge is wetted with paint and carefully applied to the artist's canvas, it can produce spaced apart dabs of paint useful for representing foilage or other special effects. Such use of the sponge requires considerable expertise to produce the desired effect.
Another painting aid for the depiction of leafy vegetation is the "Funny Brush," a registered trademark of Lesnick Art Studio, Inc. This aid comprises a plastic cylinder in which are affixed a quantity of rubber strips, each having cross section dimensions of approximately 1/16".times.1/8". This aid is used by immersing the rubber strips into paint and dabbing the strips onto the canvas. This aid suffers from two drawbacks. One is that the rubber strips do not retain a sufficient quantity of paint, necessitating frequent re-dipping. Also, the manufacturer warns that because of the composition of the rubber strips, the "Funny Brush" cannot be cleaned with normal artist's solvents.
Both the sponge and the "Funny Brush", because they are not comprised of bristles, cannot produce painted patterns having a texture like those painted with a bristle brush.
The disavantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention, and an improved artist's brush is provided for assisting the artist in depicting leafy vegetation and other specific pattern effects.